Ten seconds with your hand tells you more about hose health than a glance ever will.
What your hand can feel
With the engine cold, squeeze the upper and lower radiator hoses. Healthy hose feels firm and springy. Crunchy means the reinforcement is breaking down inside; mushy-soft means the rubber is going; a bulge near a clamp is a failure picking its date. Hoses fail on the hottest day at freeway speed — the squeeze test is how you fire them first.
Quick tips
- Check where the hose meets the clamps — that is where they swell first
- Oil-soaked hoses age fast; fix the oil leak that is dripping on them
- Ten years or 100k miles is a fair service life even for hoses that look fine
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